RETAILOBSERVER.COM SEPTEMBER 2025
4
Eliana Barriga
eliana@retailobserver.com
Here's to becoming stronger!
SEPT. 2025, VOLUME 36, ISSUE 9
CELEBRATING OUR 35
TH
YEAR
AS THE RETAIL OBSERVER
Elle's View As I See It
T
hat which does not kill us, makes us stronger." This is probably one of the most
memorable quotes from German philosopher Nietzsche, as it reflects the human
condition and motivates us to become resilient. This quote inspires me — the
harnessing of potential in the face of adversity.
Challenges help us to identify our wants from our needs, which initiates creativity and
innovation, and inspiring solutions — which is how we have gotten everything we take for
granted today from our food, homes, medicine, movies to technology. Necessity truly is
the mother of invention. It helps us to redefine all that we do and inspires us to come up
with new and creative solutions to revitalize the underperforming aspects of our lives and
businesses.
We are currently enduring a crisis as a nation, which has affected us all in many different
ways as individuals, families and business owners. Not one of us, or our company or
organization can ever anticipate every possible crisis to come. And when crisis is here,
instead of standing idly and waiting for someone else to decide our future, we need to
develop strength through goodwill and ingenuity, which lasts and helps us emerge from
crisis stronger. Getting back on track demonstrates our organizational resilience.
Then there is Nietzsche's other quote, "He who has a strong enough why can conquer
almost any how."
Many prisoners of war lived to tell the world how holding on to a future possibility by
having a strong enough "why" made all the difference in their life. Their "why" was much
bigger than themselves, and they decided "not to die," becoming much stronger for it.
The mind is so strong that it can weaken or strengthen us. Survival, and strengthening
our place in life, is completely up to us. Developing an inner strength is what's responsible
for producing an outer source of strength, and that outer source of strength is what keeps
us from becoming defeated.
This is reflected in our businesses — right now it's "do or die" time. That means doing
something different than you've been doing in the past. Create a positive picture of the
future in order to stay alive. So, like in all life's challenges, what does not kill us makes us
stronger, and this can be applied to you and your business.
THE RETAIL
WHAT DOESN'T
KILL YOU
MAKES YOU
STRONGER
PUBLISHER/MANAGING EDITOR
ELIANA BARRIGA
DIRECTOR OF SALES AND MARKETING
MOE LASTFOGEL
ART DIRECTOR
TERRY PRICE
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
STEVEN MORRIS
JOHN TSCHOHL
LIBBY WAGNER
DEADLINE FOR NOV. 2025 ISSUE:
OCT. 1, 2025
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